It’s Enough to Give You Gas!

I grew up wanting a Jeep.  To have a rag top that could drive up the side of a mountain seemed to me to be the ultimate freedom.  I remember when I was 23, I was looking at a used Laredo…  The price was right and I was ready to sign on the dotted line till I called the insurance company for a quote and they wanted something like three grand a year to insure it.    I remember asking the nice lady on the phone why the cost was so high and her asking me in response “Why do you need a Jeep in the city ?  Are you going to drive over curbs ?”.   My first lesson in what it’s like to be held down by the man!

So…  I waited and eventually was “Old” enough to afford my Jeep Wrangler Sahara and in the three years I owned it, I got to take it out on the dry lake bed near Zzyxz, California  and only drove over one curb in West L.A.

Then the policies of the current administration began to bear fruits (to the Oil Companies anyway) and gas hit around $2.25 per gallon my 70 mile per day at 18 miles per gallon commute got pricey.  So I sold the Jeep and traded up to a Mini Cooper Convertable.  A really fun car to drive and at nearly 30 Miles Per Gallon cut my commute costs in half.  And it was good… for awhile…

As I drove home tonight, Gas at the local Unocal 76 station was topping out at $ 4.11 per gallon.  I can’t imagine what the poor truck drivers are going through, with Diesel at $ 4.49 at the same station.  It is spinning out of control faster than a helicopter without a tail rotor and the government of the people, by the people and for the people has us all on hold while they take the call from the executives of the oil companies.  (But I’m sure if we leave a message at the beep, someone will get back to us eventually…)

While I would really like to see someone in government service actually serve the broader good and consider acting in the public interest with the elimination of corporate welfare during the all time greatest profit season the oil companies have ever seen, I’m realistic enough to know that there is absolutely no hope for change (if there ever will be) till after whatever the hell it is that is going to happen in November happens…  (After all, King George is either so out of touch or so comfortable lying to our faces that he played dumb when asked about gas prices approaching $ 4.00 at a press briefing!)

So for today, I am going to direct my abundant outrage on those who have historically expected to speak truth to power on our behalf.  That’s right…  The fourth estate…  The free press.

For a democracy to remain healthy, it needs a free and impartial press to question those in power.  After all, you and I won’t get the chance to ask The President what the fuck he is thinking when he does stupid shit like a little irish jig for the cameras while waiting for John McCain to show up.   After all, the press is sitting in the room with him and it is their job to remind him that he works for us and he should stop being such an idiot in public!

So I am most frustrated when I find myself watching the “Reporter” for the local news (and I work at a local TV station, so trust me I watch A LOT!) standing at the corner gas station, sticking a microphone in the face of some poor schmuck who is pumping $ 75 into his S.U.V. and asking him how he feels about rising gas prices…   This question is obvious, stupid and it does nothing to inform us.

I want that reporter to walk into the station and ask the Manager when he got his last fuel delivery, when he is due to get his next fuel delivery and assuming the answers to the former isn’t just a few minutes ago… then why the fuck did the price at the pump go up five cents since we started this conversation ?

When the price of crude oil goes up a buck a barrel on the market today, it doesn’t magicially become gasoline in the pump in real time.  It has to be shipped and refined and delivered and… Well you get it.  The cost of the gas already in the tank at the station hasn’t changerd any more that the cost of the gas in your car tank doesn’t change while you are driving (although I’m sure that given the chance, a little man from the oil company would come to your window at the next red light and shake you down for five more bucks every few blocks if he thought he could get away with it.

There is a serious scam going on here and we are getting dick’d around by it.  So what do you say we start to hold all of them accountable!  

If enough of us make sure that the politicians know that you will hold them personally accountable when Exxon produces their next world record breaking quarterly profit while government gives them tax credits, they might have to listen.  It is an election year after all and it is really easy to get the message to them because they each have the same damn web site hosted on the same damn server with the same damn pull down menus with the pre-configured topics for communicating with their constituency.

And Please make sure that the Local TV news know that you aren’t going to consume their useless products if they don’t start providing something of substance.  The airwaves are a public trust and the May sweeps rating period is about to begin!

Listen…  If it costs me half a “C-Note” to fill my little Cooper each week, it has to be killing you folks driving the GM Tahoes and Hummers.  

It’s time to get off the couch and get pissed off people!  A little revolution every so often is not such a bad thing!

So what do you think ?   What is your point of no return when it comes to fuel costs ?  And what are you going to do when you hit that wall ?